Taipei, Mar. 19, 2010 (CENS)--WiMAX Forum Congress Asia is going to open in Taiwan for the first time from April 13 to 14, 2010, to attract over 50 exhibitors and 2,000 visitors and generate potential business valued over US$625 million to Taiwanese WiMAX-based service operators and CPE (customer premises equipment) and device makers.

So far, Taiwan`s MediaTek Inc., a globally leading handset IC chip designer, and six officially licensed WiMAX service operators, namely Far Eastone Telecommunications Co., Ltd., International Telecom Corp., Tatung InfoComm Co., Global Mobile Corp., Vee Telecom Multimedia Co. and Vmax Telecom Co., are sure to show up at WiMAX Forum Congress Asia 2010. Besides, some Taiwanese notebook PC and network device makers have also shown intense interest in attending the event.

Market observers indicate that WiMAX service operators all around the world were stumbled by the global financial tsunami and forced to suspend their procurements last year. However, with the global economy recovering, some, including U.S>`s Clearwire, Japan`s UQ, Russia`s Yota, Malaysia`s P1, the Philippines`s Happy and India`s BSNL, have stepped up purchasing CPE and related devices, and will all come Taiwan to seek cooperation with exhibitors at the event.

Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC)`s latest report shows that Taiwan shipped about 2.76 million WiMAX-based CPE and devices last year, and the figure is estimated to double to 5 million this year, with demand from WiMAX service operators in southeastern Asian countries to fuel the growth.

Also notable is that High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC), a world-caliber developer of smartphones, has shipped its WiMAX-based smartphones to Yota and Clearwire, and PC brands as Acer, MSI and Asus have also built WiMAX notebook PCs.

(by Steve Chuang)